The Story of Phulan devi

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SmritiKathaIF-Rockerz

There is a strong possibility that "Phulwa" is based on the life of Phulan Devi . So i decide that we need to know the story of Phulan Devi . First thing that came in my mind was Wikipedia. I must say such a painful and sad story or life she had , Her life story can be termed as Indian Woman's Amazing Journey from Peasant to International Legend

So i think we all should know about her story , I think this forum is most suitable to narrate it . By knowing it we can compare it with "Phulwa" as well as identify where the story is moving and if CVs are changing anything .

Early life

Phoolan was born into the mallah (boatmen) caste,[1] in the small village of Gorha ka Purwa in Uttar Pradesh,
India. She was the second child in a family of four girls and a boy.
Her father owned an acre of land near G.B. Road with a huge Neem tree on it. The valuable timber that could be derived from the tree was, effectively, the family's nest egg.

When Phoolan was ten years old, her cousin, Mayadin, became the head
of the family. He sent workers to cut down the Neem tree and sell the
wood, intending to keep the proceeds for himself. Although her father
saw no use in protest, Phoolan confronted her cousin. She taunted him,
publicly called him a thief, and with her older sister staged a sit-in
on his land. Even after violence against Phoolan'knocking her out with a
brick'she wouldn't relent. In an effort to rid himself of the little
nuisance, Mayadin arranged to have her married to a man named Putti Lal,
who lived several hundred miles away. Putti Lal was in his thirties;
Phoolan was eleven.[2] Devi claimed in her autobiography that he was a man of "very bad character".

There are conflicting reports as to the events of Phoolan's life after this point.

Some accounts say that she feared her husband and refused to live
with him. He was already married, so Phoolan was relegated to household
labour. Miserable, she ran away to her village, much to the horror of
her family. A wife leaving her husband was a serious taboo. Phoolan's
mother, Moola, was so ashamed that she told her daughter to go to jump
in a well and kill herself.

Other accounts say her husband raped and mistreated her, but that she
did not know what was happening. They further claim she became
seriously ill and her father came to take her to the hospital. Her
parents publicly declared the marriage ended in front of the villagers.
She did not see her husband for two years, until she was 13. This
account claims he then came and took her back to his house where he was
living with his "second wife", an older woman. The "second wife" beat
Phoolan and treated her like a slave, restricted Phoolan's food, and
made her sleep in the cow-shed. Eventually, the husband decided to take Phoolan back to her village and family.

In any respect, it came about that Phoolan's marriage ended and she
was marked as a social outcast; even her family rejected her. Returning
to Gorha ka Purwa, Phoolan continued to challenge Mayadin. She took him
to court for unlawfully holding her father's land. During court
proceedings, she seldom controlled her emotions. Her dramatic outbursts
often left the courtroom stunned.

In 1979, Mayadin accused Phoolan of stealing from his house. She denied the accusation, but the police
arrested her anyway. In those three days in jail, she was beaten and
raped repeatedly by the police, then left in a rat-infested cell. She
knew that her cousin was behind the injustice against her. The
experience broke her body but ignited her hatred for men who routinely
denigrated women. When released from prison, she was further shunned by
her village and her family.

SmritiKathaIF-Rockerz

As a dacoit

In 1979, a gang of dacoits abducted Phoolan. The gang leader, Baboo Gujjar, who was an upper-caste Gujjar,
wanted to rape her. However, she was protected by Vikram, the deputy
leader of the gang who belonged to Phoolan's caste, Mallah. One night
when Baboo attempted to rape Phoolan, Vikram killed him and assumed the
gang leadership. Phoolan became Vikram's second wife. The gang ransacked
the village where Phoolan's husband lived. Phoolan stabbed her
estranged husband, and dragged him in front of the villagers. The gang
left him lying almost dead by the road, with a note as a warning for
older men who marry young girls.

Phoolan Devi learned how to use a rifle from Vikram, and participated
in the gang's activities, which consisted of ransacking high-caste
villages and kidnapping upper-caste landowners for ransom. After every crime, Phoolan Devi would visit a Durga temple and thank the goddess for her protection. The gang hid out in the Chambal ravine.

Later, Shri Ram got out of jail and claimed the leadership of the
gang. He belonged to the Thakur caste, and would make sexual advances
towards Phoolan. This led to tensions between Shri Ram and Vikram, who
made him apologize to Phoolan. When the gang would ransack a village,
Shri Ram would beat and insult the Mallahs. This displeased the Mallahs
in the gang, many of whom left the gang. When Shri Ram got a dozen
Thakurs to join the gang, Vikram suggested the gang be divided into two,
but Shri Ram refused. Shortly afterwards, Shri Ram and other Thakur
members in the gang attempted to kill Phoolan and Vikram, who managed to
escape. However, later they successfully killed Vikram Mallah, abducted
Phoolan and locked her up in the Behmai
Phoolan Devi was raped by many men in Behmai. After three weeks, she
managed to escape with two other Mallahs from Vikram's gang, helped by a
lower-caste villager. She gathered a gang of Mallahs, that she led with
Man Singh, a member of Vikram's former gang. The gang carried out a
series of violent robberies in north and central India, mainly targeting
upper-caste people. Some say that Phoolan Devi targeted only the
upper-caste people and shared the loot with the lower-caste people, but
the Indian authorities insist this is a myth. village.

Seventeen months after her escape from Behmai, Phoolan returned to
the village, to take her revenge. On 14 February 1981, Phoolan and her
gang marched into the Behmai village, dressed as police officers. The
Thakurs in the village were preparing for a wedding. The gang demanded
that her kidnappers be produced, along with all the valuables in the
village. Details of what exactly happened are not available, but Phoolan
is said to have recognized two men who earlier had sexually assaulted
her and murdered her lover. When Phoolan's gang failed to find all the
kidnappers after an exhaustive search, she ordered her gang members to
line up all the Thakur men in the village and shoot them. The dacoits
opened fire and killed twenty-two Thakur men, most of whom were not
involved in her kidnapping or rape. Later, Phoolan Devi claimed that she
herself didn't kill anybody in Behmai ' all the killings were carried
out by her gang members.

The Behmai massacre was followed by a massive police manhunt that failed to locate Phoolan Devi. V. P. Singh, the then Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, resigned in the wake of the Behmai killings.Phoolan Devi began to be called the Bandit Queen. Dolls of Phoolan Devi dressed as Hindu goddess Durga were sold in market towns in Uttar Pradesh. She was glorified by much of the Indian media.

SmritiKathaIF-Rockerz

Surrender and jail term

Two years after the Behmai massacre the police had still not captured Phoolan Devi. The Indira Gandhi
Government decided to negotiate a surrender. By this time, Phoolan Devi
was in poor health and most of her gang members were dead. In February
1983, she agreed to surrender to the authorities. However, she said that
she didn't trust the Uttar Pradesh police and insisted that she would only surrender to the Madhya Pradesh Police. She also insisted that she would lay down her arms only before Mahatma Gandhi's picture and Goddess Durga, and not to the police.[4] She also required the following conditions:[citation needed]

Her entire family should be escorted by the police to her surrender ceremony

An unarmed police chief met her at a hiding place in the Chambal ravines. They walked their way to Bhind,
where she laid her rifle before the portraits of Gandhi and Goddess
Durga. The onlookers included a crowd of around 10,000 people and 300
police officer and the then chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, Mr. Arjun
Singh. Three hundred police were waiting to arrest her and other members
of her gang who surrendered at the same time.

Phoolan Devi was charged with 48 crimes, including thirty charges of
dacoity (banditry) and kidnapping. Her trial was delayed for eleven
years, which she served in the prison. During this period, she was
operated on for ovarian cysts and ended up with an involuntary hysterectomy.Eklavya Sena,
a group that was aimed at teaching lower-caste people the art of
self-defense. She married Umaid Singh, her sister's husband and a New
Delhi business contractor .

sudssGoldie

the phoenix - hats off to the bravery of phoolan devi... its so hard not to loose heart when life takes you through such harsh experiences. wondering what all she had to go through in such a short span of life!!

SmritiKathaIF-Rockerz

Popular culture

Shekhar Kapur made a movie Bandit Queen
(1994) about Phoolan Devi's life up to her 1983 surrender. Although
Phoolan Devi is a heroine in the film, she fiercely disputed its
accuracy and fought to get it banned in India. She even threatened to immolate
herself outside a theater if the film were not withdrawn. Eventually,
she settled a suit against the filmmakers for about $60,000. The film
brought her international recognition. At this time, she was re-indicted
for murder and other charges.

Though she was illiterate, Phoolan composed her autobiography titled The Bandit Queen of India: An Indian Woman's Amazing Journey From Peasant to International Legend, with help of two international authors, Marie-Therese Cuny and Paul Rambali.

Star Shakur has referred to herself as being a "Bandit Queen" once in
a Youth Rebel Movement inspired and acknowledged by the movie and story
of Phoolan Devi. Star Shakur's alias and first EP Album entitled "The
Bandit Queen" was named after this movie.

Phoolan Devi is the subject of the Boxcar Satan song Shoot Down The Sun[5] from their 2003 album Upstanding and Indigent.

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